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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/30137343">Why Us?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mentally_dating_LilyEvans/pseuds/Mentally_dating_LilyEvans'>Mentally_dating_LilyEvans</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Bisexual Female Character, Fix-It, Gay Panic, How Do I Tag, I'm Bad At Tagging, LGBTQ Character, LGBTQ Female Character, LGBTQ Themes, Multi, non Canon, other tags</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-04-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 17:21:16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,797</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/30137343</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mentally_dating_LilyEvans/pseuds/Mentally_dating_LilyEvans</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Marauders Fic in which I try and fix their endings. {DISCLAIMER:i dont support jk rowling or her views in any way}</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Andromeda Black Tonks/Ted Tonks, Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger/Fred Weasley, James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Madam Rosmerta/Nymphadora Tonks, Remus Lupin/Nymphadora Tonks, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. She heard the scream from her husband</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">


        <li>
            Inspired by

            <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/10057010">All the Young Dudes</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsKingBean89/pseuds/MsKingBean89">MsKingBean89</a>.
        </li>

    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>So after i finished "All the young dudes" I was emotionally wrecked and instead of accapting the pain i decided i would write a fanfiction in which my favourite characters got better endings. "All the young dudes" is basically canon in this but i dont think youd need to read it before this(but if you havent read it what are you doing? Go read it!) Anyway this is my first attempt at fanfiction writing so please be kind. Enjoy! :)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She had heard the scream from her husband and the cruel words the monster had sneered at him and the flash of green had shone through the entire house but she couldn't let herself think about it. She would later. If there was a later.</p>
<p>Instead she had to focus on her son.</p>
<p>She held the boy close to her chest, tears streaming down her face, before placing him in his crib.</p>
<p>She could hear the footsteps of the man walking through the house, the charms for changing the layout only slowing down the inevitable.</p>
<p>Her voice shook as she whispered to Harry that she loved him. That his father loved him. That Sirius and Lupin loved him. She was about to say Peter but then realised that he must have given the information to Voldemort. Anyway it didn't matter now. </p>
<p>She told her son how much he was loved by her and his father and their friends. And how much his grandparents would have loved him. How much anyone who met him had loved him.</p>
<p>Then the door flew open and 'he' stood there.</p>
<p>She pleaded with him. Pleaded and pleaded but green light shot towards her and the world went black.</p>
<p>She had visions in that darkness. Visions of her son and her husband. Of her friends and her family. Happy ones to start. Memories of days in Hogwarts spent by the lake. Of days before Hogwarts when tuney had been kind to her and Severus had been a good person. Of her wedding day and the day Harry was born. But slowly they turned darker. Memories of Harry crying. her friends arguing. Of her and James arguing. Meetings about the war. Severus and Petunia cursing at her. Hearing the lists of the dead which had grown longer everyday. Seeing the corpses at the funerals. Seeing Marlene lying so still. Hearing the thud of James hitting the floor.</p>
<p>Then darkness crept in again and she saw nothing more.</p>
<p>When she awoke she couldn't see anything. She was lying on something hard, perhaps a large rock and there was wind whistling loudly and the sound of waves crashing somewhere near. She shivered and peered into the darkness.</p>
<p>She felt hollow. She hadn't a clue what had happened and where she was. She supposed she was dead but she felt very cold and she was definitely corporeal as she could feel herself and the rock she was on.</p>
<p>As she waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness she tried to use her magic. No luck. Not that she had expected there to be a result as she had died far away from her wand. Well, had she died?</p>
<p>Lily Potter had always been a quick and logical thinker. One of the things that had set her so apart from her husband and that had held her back when she started liking him was that she would think things through carefully and try and come up with the best solution to a problem whereas James would rush straight into things without giving a second thought to the matter. At first she had struggled with that but had eventually realised that his need to protect his loved ones, that often hindered his thoughts was what would keep them safe during the war. At any rate he wasn't as nearly so reckless as his best friend. That was something at least.<br/>As she was sitting in the dark thinking about this Lily wondered how Remus could deal with being with sirius. Knowing that the man's recklessness and impulsiveness had put both of them in danger so often. Yet Remus is always stuck by him.</p>
<p>Thinking of her friends had helped Lily calm down. But then she remembered that her husband was dead and her son probably was too and she melted down into tears.<br/>Light drops of water at first. Just enough to coat her lips with salt before she was sobbing loudly and uncontrollably.</p>
<p>After a few seconds of sobbing loudly someone from somewhere in the darkness asked</p>
<p>"Is someone there?"</p>
<p>She would have recognised that voice anywhere and despite the situation she grinned happily.</p>
<p>"James?" She asked, not caring that he couldn't be speaking, that he was dead.</p>
<p>"Lils!" James shouted, the relief in his voice obvious. "Are you alright?"</p>
<p>"Yeah. I think so. Nothing really hurts. Are you OK?"</p>
<p>"Yeah. What happened? Where are we?"</p>
<p>"I don't know darling. But he's got Harry. I'm sorry I tried to hold him off but he cursed me. I thought I was going to die. I thought.... I thought he killed you" The tears started again as she tripped over her words.</p>
<p>"Darling it's alright. You did everything you could and obviously I'm not dead." He joked, a bit of humour in the dank place they were in cheering Lily up immensely.</p>
<p>They tried to find each other by following their voices but they came to the conclusion that they were trapped apart from each other. They tried magic again and again. Spells for light. For letting people know where you were. For help. For heat. Even patronuses but nothing worked. So they gave up and talked to each other through the darkness.<br/>Hours later, or at least what Lily thought to be hours later James drifted off to sleep and she sat in the silence listening to his snoring. She must have fallen asleep soon after and she woke up with a dim light shining through the room.</p>
<p>She could see it more clearly now. Cavernous with tall ceilings and rough walls. There was a gate of sorts at one end of the room,enclosing her. A thin slit in the wall gave way to light behind it and she could hear seagulls screeching over the sound of the waves.</p>
<p>James was awake too and his cell, for want of a better word, faced Lily's. They were so close. Barely a meter and a half between the two sets of bars and when they stretched their arms through their fingertips scraped each other.</p>
<p>If they strained their ears and tried to listen past the deafening waves they could hear screaming coming from far above them.</p>
<p>Food and water appeared in their rooms three times that day and they ate in silence, so rare for the two of them. So rare that it was just the two of them. Whilst in hiding they had barely a moment together without Harry and before that there were always friends, usually Sirius and Remus spending time with them.</p>
<p>In between meals they talked. They tried to figure out where they were and what had happened to them. They also tried to assure each other that Harry would be OK but neither of them really believed it. However if the unspeakable had happened neither of them would have been able to face it and they both cried themselves to sleep that night.<br/>The next day the sound of the waves disappeared for awhile and the screaming above them stopped as loud shouts and jeers sounded through the hall and cells they were in.</p>
<p>And those shouts were what led James to his theory of where they were.</p>
<p>They were sitting in silence a few days later when Lily suddenly felt very cold and she shivered. Dark memories and thoughts infiltrated her mind and she looked over at James who had started to cry.</p>
<p>Then the feeling was lessened and James jumped up with a triumphant laugh.</p>
<p>"Lils! I figured out where we are!" He said gleefully.</p>
<p>"Where?"</p>
<p>"Azkaban!" He said, the happiness in his voice fading.</p>
<p>"What? How?" She asked incredulously.</p>
<p>"I don't know how we got here but it just seems the most likely outcome. We know we're in a castle near the sea. We know that there are other people in this place who are being tortured or something and we both keep on getting periods where we feel terrible. So dementors possibly. "</p>
<p>Lily didn't know what to make of this other than admiring her husband's thought process.</p>
<p>This revaluation didn't help the two of them much however perhaps it calmed them a little to know where they were and shake off some of the uncertainty.</p>
<p>Over the next few days they could hear more shouting and heckling coming from above but not as loud as from the second day.</p>
<p>And soon days must have passed into weeks and weeks must have passed into months. They tried keeping track by scratching tallies on the walls but they kept on having different answers.</p>
<p>They tried not to think about what might have happened to Harry or to their friends or what was going on with the war and instead they talked about memories. Happy ones usually especially that summer in Cornwall before everything went downhill. As more time passed they were starting to run out of things in their life to talk about so they started making up stories about different worlds.</p>
<p>Months stretched into what must have been years and any hope they might have had at the beginning of escaping or being rescued was scuppered. They had tried hundreds of times to escape but nothing worked and no one had come near them.</p>
<p>At a certain point talking and thinking about their friends was too much and they spoke very rarely of them if at all. They spent most of their time telling stories and surprisingly dancing.</p>
<p>Lily had never been amazing at dancing. Sure she could dance in a party in the gryffindor common room but that was about the extent of her talents. James however had been taking lessons his whole life.</p>
<p>In a suppressed memory, Sirius has taught Lily to dance for her wedding but she had resigned not to think of her friends and that memory had faded.<br/>James taught her to dance in the prison. They would sing songs that they had played on Sirius' record player in Hogwarts and music they had listened to after school and they would dance to the music together, waiting for when they could hold each other again.</p>
<p>So for years and years, they would tell tales from worlds they had constructed in their heads and they would dance and sing and scream until they fell asleep, their hands stretching towards each other through the barriers.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. He blamed himself</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Not 100% compliant with "all the young dudes" but should still be similar. (slight CW of internalized homophobia)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He blamed himself. Everyday until the department of mysteries he blamed himself. He blamed others too. Peter, Voldemort, Dumbledore. In fits of anger he even blamed Remus, but that blame never lasted and he laid the blame with himself again. </p>
<p>Thinking of Remus was what almost broke him. They had argued all the time, just as much of his fault as it was Remus’, and in the last few months he hadn’t trusted him and he regretted that constantly, but he still loved the man with all his heart. </p>
<p>From the moment Sirius had laid eyes on the boy sitting in that train carriage he wanted to know him. </p>
<p>For the first few years he had protested in his mind that he just wanted to be friends with him but there was always an inkling that he never thought of Remus like he thought of James. And that had scared him. His family’s prejudices were so deeply ingrained into him that even now, at the age of 22, he still occasionally felt that his and remus’ relationship was wrong. </p>
<p>When he and Mary started dating it had just been to keep James off his back and then Remus had kissed him on his birthday. Sirius remembered the kiss more vividly than anything else. It had been perfect but he was terrified of admitting, even to himself the feelings he had for Remus. And so he had continued to date Mary and started to shut Remus out a little bit. </p>
<p>The next while of him and Remus shagging secretly and then pretending that they weren't attracted to each other had been torture for the both of them. Sirius had let Remus believe that he simply didnt care about him in that way as a way of trying to convince himself hadn't worked so he had been unbelievably cruel to the wolf and to himself.</p>
<p>Then in Cornwall when they had admitted their feelings Sirius had felt freer than ever before and even with the war it had stayed that way until James and Lilys’ deaths. </p>
<p>He loved Remus with all his heart. When he wasn't there it hurt physically and even when the two of them were arguing he never wanted to even think about another person.</p>
<p>He loved Remus more than anyone could ever love anything he thought, with perhaps the exception of Lily and James. The two were perfect together and were perfectly matched. He would never admit it but he was incredibly jealous of the two of them. They had been destined for eachother from the beginning, so unlike him and Remus, and had barely had a minute of hardship in their relationship.And they had yet to be parted. Even in death. Perhaps it was the place he was in but Sirius wished constantly that Voldemort had killed him too and that he wouldn't have to live without Remus anymore. </p>
<p>Live knowing that Remus hated him so much. And that was what almost broke him. That Remus probably would never learn the truth.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. winter 1981</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>sorry its quite short</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>On the thirty first of october 1981, Sirius was feeling very peculiar. The entire day he was jittery and not able to focus on anything. He had a sneaking suspicion something bad was going to happen so he left the apartment with only his wand, wearing remus’ leather jacket and got on his motorbike and went first to Peter's hideout. He was not there. There was no sign of a struggle so Sirius, with fear rising set out for Godric's hollow.<br/>He arrived just behind the church and walked swiftly through the village avoiding the muggles as he neared the house. Then he heard a scream and he transformed into Padfoot and sprinted towards the house, not caring about the muggles watching him.<br/>He arrived at the house too late. As he reached the gate a bright flash of green filled the sky and the house was blown to pieces. <br/>Padfoot jumped over the gate and bounded into the house. <br/>James lay on the floor in the living room, his face motionless. Too still even for a corpse, Sirius thought before realising that he was trying to stop himself from realising the truth. <br/>Sirius transformed again and drew out his wand, aware that Voldemort was probably still there. <br/>He walked quietly through the house, listening out for signs of life.<br/>There was a rustling upstairs and he followed the noise to where he found Harry, barely awake in his crib. Sirius stepped over Lily and picked the boy up. He tried to smile at him as he tried not to think about Lily and James.<br/>He took Harry downstairs and out into the garden. He clung to the baby as tears fell down his face. His mind blank.<br/>For some reason Hagrid arrived and took Harry from him. Sirius, still numb, handed over his friend's son and offered Hagrid the motorcycle. He couldn't use it anymore. Not without James. <br/>Sirius sat in the potters garden, sobbing for as long as he could before the muggles and aurors arrived. <br/>He wandered through the village, wanting Remus. Remus! Sirius had thought he was the mole but he hadn't known where Lily and James were...that meant that it had been…</p><p>“Wormtail!” Sirius shouted down the street.“You bastard.”It had taken a day to track down the snivelling man who stood in front of him. Pure hatred shone in Sirius’s eyes all the while the commotion was happening. Perhaps that was why people thought that he was the one who had murdered those muggles and that wretched rat. <br/>Eitherway Sirius ended up in Azkaban with ᛈᛉ390 stamped across his chest. <br/>The prisoners had gone mad when he was led in, but the people led in straight afterwards were given a standing ovation by the lunatics. That dark haired witch had smiled at him before crackling loudly and he avoided her gaze for the next 12 years.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. news hurts</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>If we are taking All the Young Dudes as canon(which i think we are) this chapter has mild canon differences but i dont think it really matters as theyre quite small. Also apparently in my mind Molly and Lily were both aspiring journalists</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Mary woke up on the first of November next to Darren. Again. She had told herself time and time again that she wouldn't sleep with him again but the night before she had been feeling very peculiar and she hadn't been able to get in touch with Lily or Sirius. She knew that Remus was on a mission so she couldn't get in touch with him either and Darren was comfortable and familiar.<br/>She left Darren's apartment and apperated straight home. If she hadn't she would have noticed the packs of witches and wizards on the streets and the owls in the broad daylight but she apperated straight into her apartment and threw the daily prophet on the sofa without so much as looking at the cover.<br/>The morning felt very odd and she wandered listlessly around her apartment tidying up random things before deciding that she ought to go for a walk. As she was pulling on her coat her sister dropped by.<br/>Anna had brought some croissants and gossip. She proclaimed that the streets were full of people in cloaks, “Like the people on the station platform when we dropped you off for school.”<br/>Mary rushed to the window and looked out on the dreary London street below. Sure enough witches and wizards had flocked to the streets and Mary wondered aloud what had happened.<br/>Anna who had sat down on the sofa and picked up the prophet to move it asked “Does it have anything to do with the war ending?”<br/>“What?” Mary almost shouted.<br/>“It says in your magic paper that the war is over.”<br/>Mary moved quickly and grabbed the newspaper out of her sisters hands and sat down quickly.</p><p>The Daily Prophet<br/>WAR OVER<br/>1st of November 1981<br/>Rita Skeeter(Daily Prophet- Junior Correspondent)</p><p>“After a decade of terror and tragedy at the hands of those that call themselves death eaters and their leader Lord Voldemort we, the Ministry of Magic, are immensely pleased and delighted to announce that Lord Voldemort has been defeated and the war is over!” An unusually jubilant Bartemius Crouch(head of the Magical Law Enforcement department)told me early this morning.<br/>Last night the man who calls himself Lord Voldemort tracked down the Potter family who had been in hiding for a year after learning that he wished to kill them and their son.<br/>The Ministry is unsure of exactly what happened but the working theory is that he killed Lily and James Potter and attempted to kill their one year old son Harry but the spell backfired and killed the Dark Lord instead.<br/>This ends ten years of tyranny from the death eaters and most if not all families can now breath in peace.<br/>Lord voldemort and his followers targeted muggles and muggle borns and even straying so far as to kill half bloods and people who opposed him, such as ministry officials and members of The Order of the Phoenix a group of people that Professor Albus Dumbledore collected to fight back against the death eaters.<br/>In light of the joyous news the ministry is requesting any and all information people have about death eaters and supporters of Lord Voldemort as well as reporting instances of any of the unforgivable curses.<br/>Whilst the war is over and the Dark Lord has been defeated the Ministry advises that people proceed with caution as there are still death eaters at large.<br/>Take care with family, friends and acquaintances and continue to use security questions and continue to be wary of strangers and half breeds.<br/>The ministry is rounding up Death Eaters and supporters as we speak and trials are being arranged as well as transportation to azkaban.</p><p>Continued on page 3.</p><p>The Potter Family<br/>1st of November 1981<br/>Molly Weasley~The potters friend and intern at the daily prophet<br/>James and Lily Potter met at Hogwarts in 1971 when they were both sorted into Gryffindor. The two had a sort of friendly rivalry from the get go as James was madly in love with Lily and she refused to go out with him.<br/>But Lily slowly fell in love with the charming prankster and they started going out in their seventh year.<br/>They were married in a quiet ceremony in 1979 and welcomed their first child Harry in 1980.<br/>James Fleamont Potter was the only son of Euphemia and Fleamont Potter. He was born on the 27th of march 1960 and will be remembered as a dashing prankster, amazing quidditch chaser and captain of the gryffindor team, an exemplary gryffindor and head boy of hogwarts, one of the best wizards of his age and last but certainly not least; a caring, kind and amazing friend, husband and father.<br/>Lily potter(nee Evans)was a muggle born who was the brightest in her year if not in the school during her later years at Hogwarts.<br/>She was caring and kind and loved her friends and family deeply. She was a gryffindor prefect and head girl and had it not been for the war she was going to become a journalist.<br/>She was an amazing witch, friend, wife and mother and she and her husband will be missed deeply by their friends and anyone who had the pleasure of meeting them.<br/>The Potters were brutally murdered on the 31st of october by He Who Shall Not Be Named and their loss is devastating. They were only 21 when they died and the tragedy of that shall rock our world for a long while as a constant reminder of the horrors that this war brought. Their son Harry is living with Lily’s muggle sister.</p><p>Cold swept through her as she read the words, the last dredges of hope disappearing even though the war was over. Why them? Out of all of them, why them. She didn't have kids, she didn't have a soulmate. She didn't even have Marlene anymore. At least Lily and James had had each other and Remus and Sirius. Why was it them? Why?<br/>Suddenly the phone rang and Anna said that it was for Mary. Numbly she picked up the receiver and heard Remus’s voice. <br/>“Mary? Have you heard from anyone? Sirius isn't here, Lily and James arnt answering me and no one else seems to be home.”<br/>Mary broke down and the tears that hadn't even fallen after Marlene; her mind still not accepting the girl’s death, started to fall as she said “I need to tell you something.”</p>
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